Navigating Shared Leadership: A Conversation with Level Ground, Disco Riot, and Bridge Live Arts Date Recorded: Sept 19, 2024 Curator: Cherie Hill Moderators: Cherie Hill & Rebecca Fitton Panelists: Level Ground’s yétúndé olágbajú and Samantha Curly & DISCOT RIOT’s Zaquia Mahler Salinas and Trystan Loucado Video Description: Representatives from California-based arts nonprofits DISCOT RIOT (San Diego) and Level Ground (Los Angeles) join Bridge Live Arts staff for an honest conversation about practicing shared leadership. The group discusses their organizations’ journeys in shared leadership, decision-making processes, aligning boards, and administrative and artistic power distribution. They acknowledge the unique challenges co-directors face and share resources and strategies toward sustainability.

Fiscal Sponsorship Unpacked: A Discussion for Equity-Minded Artists & Collectives with Rebecca Fitton Date recorded: May 8, 2024 Speaker: Rebecca Fitton Video Description: In this informational session, Rebecca Fitton shares her research into the practice of fiscal sponsorship and its function in the nonprofit dance field. She reflects on how fiscal sponsorship intersects with the movements toward financial equity and economic justice for artists historically under-resourced by public and private institutions. This conversation invites questions and discussion about the largely uninterrogated practice outside of legal and accounting circles over advice or suggestions for best practices. NOTE: This presentation is meant to offer a reflection on the field’s current reliance on fiscal sponsorship. It is not meant to advise artists whether they should be fiscally sponsored. Bridge Live Arts does not offer fiscal sponsorship.

Revolutionizing Sites Through Integrative Performance Date Recorded: April 3, 2023 Curator: Cherie Hill Panelists: Onye Ozuzu, amara tabor smith A thoughtful conversation between long-time friends and choreographers Onye Ozuzu and amara tabor smith. Together they discuss approaches to organizing movement of the body in relationship to buildings and experiences of space and time - exploring architecture as site, city as site, and community as site. Onye shares on her process for “Space Carcasses” an interdisciplinary performance “that juxtaposes, superimposes, and amplifies the contested African Diaspora relationship” between the vaults on Factors Row in Savannah, Georgia, the architecture of La Rochelle, France, and areas in Northern Nigeria, sites connected to the history of humans traded as commodities. Amara shares on the development of “House Full of Black Women”, “a multi-site, multi-media, ritual dance theater project addressing the displacement, well-being, and sex-trafficking of Black women and girls in Oakland”. This conversation was presented as part of Bridge Live Arts’ Liberating Bodies series. [Related Links] Onye Ozuzu - https://ozuzudances.com/ amara tabor smith - https://www.deepwatersdance.com/ Liberating Bodies series - https://www.bridgelivearts.org/liberating-bodies

Dividing the Pie Date Recorded: September 7, 2022 Moderator & Curator: Hope Mohr Panelists: Alejandra Cruz, Erika Sato, Hope Williams, & Alex Sanchez Bressler on behalf of the Sustainable Economies Law Center Are you part of an organization that prioritizes equity? If so, you may know that navigating the transition between this commitment and tangible compensation decisions can be complex. In this conversation moderated by former Bridge Live Arts Co-Director & Choreographer Hope Mohr, a team of lawyers from the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) guide you through their journey from values to compensation structure. With a focus on equity and reparations, they detail the step-by-step evolution that led to SELC's pay equity model, currently utilized for employee compensation. This conversation was presented as part of Bridge Live Arts’ Money in the Arts: Pathways to Equity series. [Related Links] SELC - www.theselc.org Hope Mohr - www.hopemohr.org Alejandra Cruz - www.theselc.org/alejandra_cruz Erika Sato - www.theselc.org/erika_sato Hope Williams - www.theselc.org/hope_williams Alex Sanchez Bressler - www.theselc.org/intern_alex_sanchez_bressler Money in the Arts series - https://www.bridgelivearts.org/money-in-the-arts

Danzacuentos: Charla Virtual / Virtual Chat Date Recorded: September 17, 2021 / 17 de septiembre 2021 Moderators & Curators: Mario Ismael Espinoza, David Herrera, and Karla Quintero Panelists: Snowflake Calvert, Dulce Escobedo, Marianna Escobedo, Cinthia Pérez Navarro y Lyvan Verdecia The audio interview series Danzacuentos: Voz, Cuerpo, y Raíces provided listeners a window into the diverse experiences of Latinx, Indigenous, and Hispanic artists residing in the US and Mexico. Following their candid interviews, the five series’ artists—Snowflake Calvert, Dulce Escobedo, Marianna Escobedo, Cinthia Pérez Navarro, and Lyvan Verdecia—come together for a bilingual virtual conversation. Moderated by series co-curators David Herrera, Mario Ismael Espinoza, and Karla Quintero, they discuss the significance of sharing their narratives in their own words, grounded in a sense of belonging. In this conversation, they also explore their creative processes and delve into their connections with family, community, Latinidad, and various aspects of their identities. This conversation was presented as part of Bridge Live Arts’ Anti-Rascism in Dance series. La serie de entrevistas Danzacuentos: Voz, Cuerpo, y Raíces ofreció al oyente una ventana a las diversas experiencias de artistas latinx, indígenas e hispanos radicados en Estados Unidos y México. Tras sus sinceras entrevistas, los cinco artistas de la serie -Copo de Nieve Calvert, Dulce Escobedo, Marianna Escobedo, Cinthia Pérez Navarro y Lyvan Verdecia- se reúnen para una conversación virtual bilingüe. Moderada por David Herrera, Mario Ismael Espinoza y Karla Quintero, cocuradores de la serie, hablan sobre la importancia de relatar sus historias en sus propias palabras, desde un sentido de pertenencia. En esta conversación, también exploran sus procesos creativos y examinan sus conexiones a la familia, la comunidad, la latinidad y varios aspectos de sus identidades. Esta conversación se presentó como parte de la Serie de Antirracismo en la Danza de Bridge Live Arts. [Related Links ] Snowflake Calvert - https://snowflakecalvert.com/ Dulce Escobedo - https://www.instagram.com/tijuanadanza/ Marianna Escobedo - https://www.instagram.com/mariannaesdanza/ Cinthia Pérez Navarro - https://www.instagram.com/znt_dance/ Lyvan Verdecia - https://www.instagram.com/lyvanverdecia/ David Herrera - https://www.dhperformance.org/ Mario Ismael Espinoza - https://miespinoza.com/about/ Karla Quintero - https://www.instagram.com/karlajohannaquintero/ Danzacuentos Audio Series - https://www.danzacuentos.org/

A Conversation on Aesthetic Equity Date Recorded: October 18, 2020 Moderator & Curator: Cherie Hill Panelists: Jaime Cortez, Liz Lerman, Paloma McGregor, Michael Orange A dialogue between seasoned choreographers Liz Lerman, Paloma McGregor, Filmmaker Michael Orange, and Author and Hewlett Foundation Program Officer Jaime Cortez on aesthetic equity and bias in the arts, moderated by B.L.A. Co-Director & Choreographer Cherie Hill. From the lens of equity, decolonization, and liberation, the artists, who share a broad spectrum of curatorial experience, offer diverse viewpoints on evaluating artistic excellence and discuss approaches to artistic support that privilege practice and process over performance and product. This conversation was presented as part of the Festival Power Shift: Improvisation, Activism, and Community. [Related Links] Liz Lerman - https://lizlerman.com/ Paloma McGregor - https://angelaspulse.org/about/team/ Jaime Cortez - https://jaimecortez.org/home.html Michael Orange - https://tinyurl.com/MichOrange Cherie Hill - https://www.movedasoul.com/

Are You For Sale? Date Recorded: June 10, 2020 Moderator & Curator: Hope Mohr Panelists: Miguel Gutierrez & Edgar Villanueva In this thought-provoking dialogue, Author & Activist Edgar Villanueva joins Choreographer & Advocate Miguel Gutierrez to discuss the interplay between money and artmaking. They focus on institutional philanthropy, a sector that holds $900 billion in assets yet is bound by minimal regulation. Gutierrez and Villanueva dissect the paradoxical nature of a system meant to serve the public good but that also functions as a vehicle for accumulating private wealth. They confront prevailing disparities in foundation funding, particularly for communities of color, the colonial dynamics embedded in artist grant application procedures, and touch on how foundations have stepped up to address government shortcomings. [Related Links] Miguel Gutierrez - miguelgutierrez.org Edgar Villanueva - edgarvillanueva.net Hope Mohr - hopemohr.org

Race in Contact Improvisation Date Recorded: September 15, 2020 Moderators & Curators: Cherie Hill & Karla Quintero Panelists: Rebecca Bryant, Leslie Heydon, Richard Kim, & Taja Will Contact Improvisation (CI) is a partner dance form based on the physical principles of touch, momentum, and shared weight. In a direct, and open hearted conversation, Taja Will, Richard Kim, Leslie Heydon, & Rebecca Bryant, all contact improvisation (CI) practitioners with distinct, and personal commitments to activism for social justice, speak about their experiences with racism, microaggressions, and white fragility in CI. They also dispel myths about the form’s inherent egalitarianism and discuss their intentional efforts and those of other colleagues they admire to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in CI and to cultivate a sense of belonging for Black, Indigenous, and of Color practitioners within the field. This conversation was presented as part of the Festival Power Shift: Improvisation, Activism, and Community. [Related Links] Rebecca Bryant - https://www.csulb.edu/dance/page/rebecca-bryant Richard Kim - https://contactimprovblog.com/ Leslie Heydon - https://ciglobalcalendar.net/teachers/489 Taja Will - tajawillartist.com Cherie Hill - https://www.movedasoul.com/ Karla Quintero - https://www.instagram.com/karlajohannaquintero/ Power Shift Festival - https://www.bridgelivearts.org/power-shift-dialogues

Dance on the Front Line: BLM Date Recorded: December 1, 2022 Curator: Cherie Hill Moderator: Jocquese Whitfield Panelists: Amya Jackson, Karma Muñez, Dhee Lacy Amya Jackson, Karma Munez, & Dhee Lacy are voguers based in Chicago Wanting to bring queer and trans visibility to the Black Lives Matter movement, the trio brought their artistry to the front lines of Chicago Black Lives Matter protests. In this conversation, moderated by San Francisco-based Vogue artist and educator Jocquese Whitfield and curated by B.L.A. Co-Director and Choreographer Cherie Hill, the artists discuss their voguing journeys, what prompted their decision to participate in the movement with their bodies, and the reactions from their communities. This conversation was presented as part of Bridge Live Arts’ Anti-Racism in Dance series. [Related Links] Jocquese Whitfield: https://www.instagram.com/sirjoq/ Dhee Lacy - https://www.instagram.com/dheelacy/ Karma Munez - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeLGp1N-Aeo Amya Jackson - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xFPB6ImAy0